WWE/TNA: My Top 10 Moments of the Week (Jan. 16-20)

Another week of professional wrestling has ended and quite the week it was.

Monday Night Raw certainly had its low points, but the tension that was created for some of the storylines made for a good show.

TNA’s Impact Wrestling put on another good show this week, but like Raw, the show had its low points.

SmackDown was better than last week, but it too had a number of low points, mainly thanks to the roulette wheel.

I’m torn between Raw and Impact Wrestling in terms of the best show of the week. With the ending segment on Raw, though, I’m leaning towards WWE’s flagship show.

Here are my top 10 moments of the week!

10. R-Truth vs. Miz vs. Wade Barrett vs. Sheamus: Over the Top Rope Challenge

I thought this was a decent match. It was a nice little preview of the Royal Rumble itself.

I was glad to see Truth win but disappointed that Miz once again walked out of Raw with the short end of the stick.

His feud with R-Truth has been very one-sided, with Truth getting the upper hand on Miz every single time. The Awesome one has tried to one up Little Jimmy, but it always backfires.

While I love R-Truth’s crazy face character, he shouldn’t be Superman.

If Miz doesn’t gain some kind of momentum next week, I may lose interest in the feud.

As for Wade Barrett and Sheamus, I’ve been waiting for these two to go at it ever since Christian went down with his injury; it just took Randy Orton getting injured as well to make it happen.

The two of them have become dominating forces on SmackDown, and it was only a matter of time before they clashed. 

9. Gunner vs. A.J. Styles

This was a good match. It had some nice back-and-forth action and had a good pace to it.

It was good to see Gunner in a real match instead of one where he squashes someone, then DDTs or pilvedrives them onto the concrete.

He really impressed me in the ring as he was able to keep up with one of the best TNA has to offer.

With Ric Flair by his side, Gunner has nowhere to go but up from here.

If this potential mess between Flair, TNA and the WWE Hall of Fame isn’t resolved and Flair leaves TNA, then I think that’s it for Gunner.

If Flair’s gone, he should just pack up and go home.

He can be good in the ring, as seen on Thursday, but he wasn’t doing a thing until they aligned him with Flair.

Without the Nature Boy, I fear that Gunner may go nowhere.

I’m quite intrigued by the Christopher Daniels/Kazarian factor in Styles’ career.

Kaz seemed very hesitant to attack Styles, but Daniels forced him to do it.

It’s like the Fallen Angel knows something about Kaz that we don’t.

He’s got to know something to have this kind of hold on Kazarian.

I fear that TNA is doing this just to keep the Styles/Daniels feud alive, but I hope this is happening to eventually give Kaz the push he deserves.

8. Raw's Main Event

Despite creative not being able to make up their minds on the format of this match, with it going from a six-man tag-team match, to a three-on-two handicap match, to a tag-team match, I thought this was an enjoyable match.

To no one’s surprise, Jericho got the tag then almost immediately tagged out and left the arena.

The boos from the crowd seemed quite loud watching on television, so WWE could be getting exactly what they wanted.

To me, Jericho works much better as a heel. His in-ring work is always solid no matter his character, but his mic work is always better when he’s a bad guy.

I have a feeling that he won’t be saying a word until after the Royal Rumble—when he gives his victory speech.

Daniel Bryan and Mark Henry fought to the back towards the end of the match, which advanced their hatred for each other.

I’m still not sold on Henry as a main event star. He just bores me in the ring and on the mic.

When Bryan won the title, I wasn’t sold with him as champion, but I’m starting to buy in.

His wrestling was always great, but his mic work in WWE has been subpar at best. Since winning the title, he has become quite the good talker.

Seeing Mick Foley come in was great and it was made even better when he jammed Mr. Socko down David Otunga’s throat.

It’s good to see Foley back in WWE, though, I hope he stays out of the ring.

Then there was Otunga, who was just kind of there.

The Punk/Ziggler feud wasn’t advanced too well, I thought. The Punk/Laurinaitis feud certainly was, though. 

7. Cody Rhodes vs. Justin Gabriel

While shorter than I would have liked, I felt this was a good match.

Cody Rhodes was great (as usual), and Justin Gabriel was able to keep up with the Intercontinental champion.

I mentioned in this slide of last week’s top 10 that I would love to see these two enter into a feud with one another. Could this match be the beginning of that?

These two superstars put on a good show in the short amount of time they were given. Imagine what they could do with more time!

Rhodes really is the best Intercontinental champion WWE has seen in quite a while, and he’s helping in bringing the title back to its former glory.

Gabriel was, without a doubt, the standout performer of the first NXT and the Nexus stable. He’s great in the ring and can put on a good match. Having him in a feud with Cody Rhodes could elevate him to new heights, whether he wins or loses.

I really hope that this match turns into a rivalry and wasn’t just a one-time thing.

6. Mickie James vs. Madison Rayne: Steel Cage Match

I thought this was a good match between two good wrestlers.

Mickie has always been good in the ring and was the best WWE had to offer after Trish Stratus left. They were quite foolish for letting her go.

Madison really doesn’t get the credit she deserves sometimes. She’s a damn good heel who knows how to draw heat from the audience, and she can put on a good match.

It was nice to see the cage get some use as well. I was pleasantly surprised when Mickie’s face got slammed into the cage and when Madison was thrown into it multiple times.

They weren’t afraid to use the cage and I applaud them for that.

Some friends always ask me why I praise the Knockout’s. Well, it’s because of matches like this.

TNA allows their women wrestlers to actually wrestle and when asked to set foot inside of a steel cage, the women of TNA aren’t afraid to do so.

I’d like see the WWE Divas inside of a cage, but then I remember that the women of WWE don’t matter to the company.

Mickie and Madison put on a good match and they weren’t afraid to get a little violent.

No matter which Knockouts are in the match, I can’t for the next one at Lockdown in April.

5. Wade Barrett vs. Sheamus: Tables Match

I have always enjoyed tables matches and this was no exception.

Barrett and Sheamus put on a good show here. It was very physical and featured some good moments.

There were many “close calls” in this match, with both Barrett and Sheamus leaping over a table to avoid going through it.

Since his feud with Randy Orton, Barrett has really come into his own. I’ve been quite impressed by the Barrett Barrage lately and I’m starting to become a fan.

I think a world title is definitely in his future this year.

Sheamus has always been impressive. Since his debut, he has been a dominating force.

I’ve been a fan of Irishman since day one and I’m still on board with the Great White Sheamus.

If I didn’t think that the winning spot in the Royal Rumble was for Chris Jericho or Randy Orton, I’d say that both Barrett and Sheamus had a damn good shot in winning it.

Both of them will undoubtedly last quite some time and probably dominate parts of the match, but neither of them will pick up the victory.

4. James Storm vs. Jeff Hardy: No. 1 Contender’s Match

This was a great match, and I even liked the ending. It had a pretty good pace to it and both men performed quite well.

To me, the ending of this match sets up two possibilities for the Against All Odds PPV and sets up the next couple of months.

The fans will either get to see a triple-threat match with Booby Roode defending against Jeff Hardy and James Storm, or a fatal four-way match with big Bully Ray added to the mix.

Personally, I would prefer the fatal four-way match. That in and of itself would set up two feuds leading into Slammiversary in June.

If I had my way, the next couple of months would go like this:

Roode pins Hardy at Against All Odds in a fatal four-way match. That would set up the Roode/Storm and Bully/Hardy singles feuds.

At Victory Road, the main event would be a tag-team match featuring Bobby Roode and Bully Ray vs. James Storm and Jeff Hardy.

The following month at Lockdown, Roode and Storm would captain teams in Lethal Lockdown with Bully Ray pinning Hardy.

At Sacrifice in May, Bully Ray vs. Jeff Hardy and Bobby Roode vs. someone else will be featured as Storm will be screwed out of a title shot.

Then at Slammiversary, Ray vs. Hardy in some kind of extreme style match, while the big Roode/Storm one-on-one match main events the show.

Obviously, that is all wishful thinking, and Against All Odds could lead to another scenario entirely.

Either way, the ending of this Thursday’s main event was certainly the beginning of something major.

3. The Austin Aries/Alex Shelley in-Ring Segment

I thought that this was a great segment.

Aries’ mic work is the best in the X-Division. He really knows how to play to the crowd.

When the fans chanted “you suck,” Aries just stated that if he did suck, then why was he champion.

The fans then chanted his name, to which he responded that he didn’t want his name chanted because he already knew how great he was.

The X-Division was never known for mic skills, just great in-ring work.

Aries has set the bar for not only the division, but for TNA as a whole.

If you put him on the mic up against one of the main event stars, I guarantee he could not only hold his own, but he could outshine the main-eventer.

When the music of the Motor Machine City Guns hit, I was hoping that it was going to be Chris Sabin, but I was still very happy to see Alex Shelley back in TNA.

Shelley was one of those X-Division stars who was never too good on the mic, but he was great on Thursday.

He was able to keep up with and be just as witty as Aries.

Once Alex Shelley gets his shot, the feud between these two should be a great one.

2. John Cena Snaps

I’m not a fan of John Cena at all, so it’s very rare that you see something he does on this list.

This past Monday on Raw, though, the fans saw a different side of Cena.

He was crazy, he was nuts, he just plain snapped.

After John Laurinaitis pretty much screwed Zack Ryder out of the United States Championship, Cena confronted the interim general manager.

Cena was mad, which is something that doesn’t happen often.

Laurinaitis booked Cena in a match against new champion Jack Swagger so that Cena could calm down.

Calming down is the last thing he did.

He absolutely destroyed Swagger. Whether it was beating him with his bare hands or slamming him onto the announce booth, Cena’s anger was released on poor Jack Swagger.

It looks like Kane is getting exactly what he wanted. Cena embraced the hate on Monday and used it to all but kill Swagger.

Cena only stopped when he realized that he was giving Kane the satisfaction of him going over the edge.

It will be very interesting to see where this goes from here.

While I loved the story behind Cena snapping, I was absolutely disgusted by the burial of the United States Championship.

I understand that they needed to show that Kane’s words were getting to Cena, but it should not have been at the expense of a WWE title.

1. A Pipe Bomb Is Dropped as John Laurinaitis Vows to Screw CM Punk

After the main event, Punk grabbed a mic and proceeded to drop a pipe bomb.

Punk said that Laurinaitis didn’t like him because he’s something Laurinaitis never was—a star.

Johnny Ace had the look, but he sucked, so he went nowhere. He was boring and went from sucking to sucking up.

Punk had achieved more in one year than Laurinaitis did in his entire career.

No matter the outcome at the PPV, Punk will still be better than Laurinaitis. If he does screw him, Punk will get fans talking about Laurinaitis for the first time in his career because Punk will take him out.

Punk left the ring and Laurinaitis picked up a mic and declared that he won’t be intimidated by Punk.

Foley then put in his two cents and wanted Laurinaitis to admit that he was going to screw Punk, to which Laurinaitis admitted that he would before hitting Foley with the mic.

This was pure entertainment right there.

It’s been a while since Punk delivered a great promo, so this was a very welcomed segment.

Laurinaitis was even good despite stumbling a bit. He really got over as a heel.

Foley played the instigator and he played it perfectly.

Punk not only defied the man in charge but he embarrassed him. Laurinaitis has never shown that Punk was getting to him until tonight.

I am very interested to see what will happen next week.

Johnny Ace openly admitted to everyone that he, the authority figure, was biased and planned on screwing the champion over.

This makes me think that Laurinaitis won’t be in charge after the Rumble.

Perhaps we’ll get to see the Hardcore Legend take the reins of Raw soon?!